Bloomsbury Home
- Home
- ACADEMIC
- Philosophy
- Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality
- Becoming Beauvoir
You must sign in to add this item to your wishlist. Please sign in or create an account
Description
“One is not born a woman, but becomes one”, Simone de Beauvoir
A symbol of liberated womanhood, Simone de Beauvoir's unconventional relationships inspired and scandalised her generation. A philosopher, writer, and feminist icon, she won prestigious literary prizes and transformed the way we think about gender with The Second Sex. But despite her successes, she wondered if she had sold herself short.
Her liaison with Jean-Paul Sartre has been billed as one of the most legendary love affairs of the twentieth century. But for Beauvoir it came at a cost: for decades she was dismissed as an unoriginal thinker who 'applied' Sartre's ideas. In recent years new material has come to light revealing the ingenuity of Beauvoir's own philosophy and the importance of other lovers in her life.
This ground-breaking biography draws on never-before-published diaries and letters to tell the fascinating story of how Simone de Beauvoir became herself.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Simone de Beauvoir-Who's She?
1. Growing like a girl
2. The dutiful daughter
3. Lover of God or lover of men?
4. The love before the legend
5. The Valkyrie and the Playboy
6. Rooms of her own
7. The trio that was a quartet
8. War within, war without
9. Forgotten philosophy
10. Queen of existentialism
11. American dilemmas
12. The scandalous Second Sex
13. Putting a new face on love
14. Feeling gypped
15. Old age revealed
16. The dying of the light
17. Afterwords: What will become of Simone de Beauvoir?
Select Bibliography
Product details

Published | 20 Aug 2020 |
---|---|
Format | Paperback |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 496 |
ISBN | 9781350168435 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
Dimensions | 216 x 138 mm |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
-
A book to be read slowly and savoured. There's too much detail to gulp it down. But it is worth the time it takes to read a fascinating portrait of a woman who inspired women around the world and who changed the way many people think.
The Sunday Times
-
[Kirkpatrick] gives more space to De Beauvoir's contrary relationship with feminism, and the discussion here is helpfully rich ... The letters to Lanzmann do constitute a major new resource ... Where Kirkpatrick's biography is strongest is in clarifying and showing the strength of De Beauvoir's ethical commitments, and how these were transformed into political commitments after the war.
The Guardian
-
4 stars ... Illuminating.
The Daily Telegraph
-
Kirkpatrick's biography is an exercise in meticulous research. Using newly published diaries – only recently made available to researchers – it refuses simple characterisations and reveals de Beauvoir in all her brilliance and complexity ... Becoming Beauvoir is a beautiful tribute to a remarkable woman.
Times Higher Education
-
Fascinating and deeply researched.
Daily Mail
-
Kirkpatrick offers a far more detailed and analytical account of de Beauvoir's philosophy than any previous biography ... Kirkpatrick's essential achievement here is to have related Simone de Beauvoir's logic to her life ... This is the best Beauvoir biography yet.
Standpoint Magazine

ONLINE RESOURCES
Bloomsbury Collections
This book is available on Bloomsbury Collections where your library has access.